Menard’s Darlington scheme gives honor to Al Unser Jr. – Nascar

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CONCORD, N.C. — When Valvoline officials queried NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver Paul Menard about his racing heroes, the first name on the list was Al Unser Jr.

So Menard couldn’t be more pleased that the Valvoline-themed throwback paint scheme he will run in this year’s Bojangles’ Southern 500 pays tribute to Unser Jr.’s lone NASCAR premier series start.

Menard’s Richard Childress Racing No. 27 Chevrolet will carry the gray, orange and black color scheme used by Unser Jr. for the 1993 Daytona 500 with sponsor Valvoline featured on the hood when the series travels to Darlington Raceway for the annual Labor Day weekend classic.

“Little Al’s first NASCAR race was the Daytona 500 in 1993,” Menard said earlier this week as preparations for the unveiling of the paint scheme got underway. “The partnership with Valvoline this year — we got to talking earlier about who some of my racing heroes were and Al Jr. was right away, even without the Valvoline relationship. I’ve always been a huge fan of his. He was the guy in IndyCar that I always pulled for.”

Menard said he met the former open-wheel champion and two-time winner of the Indianapolis 500 “when I was probably 12.”

“I remember; he probably doesn’t,” Menard continued. “But I pulled up (this morning) … and he was standing out in the parking lot. We were out there talking probably 10 or 15 minutes, just about the ’93 (Daytona) 500, his autocross stuff that he’s doing now, just talking about a little bit of racing.”

Unser Jr. was carrying the Valvoline colors in 1992 when he won his first Indy 500 title. Already a NASCAR sponsor, Valvoline wanted additional branding in ’93 to promote its line of synthetic products, particularly for that year’s Daytona 500.

And the Daytona 500 just happened to be on Unser Jr.’s bucket list.

“There were special races that I wanted to race in my career,” Unser Jr. said. “The Indy 500, the Daytona 500, the Daytona 24 Hours and Le Mans. Those are the ones that I really wanted to run as a kid.

“The Indy 500 is really where my heart is so we’d been doing that. But yeah, I wanted to run the Daytona 500 sometime during my career and it was just a blessing when Valvoline called me up and said, ‘You know, we’d like to do this down in Daytona. Would you like to do it?’

“I said, ‘Of course I would. It’s got to be with a great team.’

“They said, ‘We’ve contacted Hendrick Motorsports,’ and I go, ‘Awesome.’ “

At that time, the Hendrick organization consisted of three teams with drivers Ken Schrader, Ricky Rudd and rookie Jeff Gordon. The addition of Unser Jr. made it a four-team effort for the series’ most notable race.

A crash during the second of two twin qualifying races three days before the 500, however, cost Unser Jr. his primary entry and he wound up racing Schrader’s backup Chevrolet Lumina.

Instead of a gray, orange and black paint scheme, Unser Jr.’s race-day car was white with the Valvoline branding on the hood and across the rear quarter panels.

A crash with less that 50 laps remaining took Unser Jr. out of contention, and he finished 36th.

When told that Menard and Valvoline were bringing the original paint scheme back to the track for the Darlington throwback weekend, Unser said he was “just overwhelmed.”

“Mainly because this was just a one off,” he said, “not a traditional kind of car with a lot of running behind it, a lot of heritage to it. So when they contacted me and said they were thinking about doing this throwback at Darlington … it was a true blessing.”

Menard praised Valvoline for not only bringing back the paint scheme, but for the company’s long involvement in auto racing.

“The brand is iconic in our sport,” he said. “You pick out right away where that Valvoline car is on the race track, whether it’s a stock car race or IndyCar races, NHRA. They’re always around the sport. They have a huge racing legacy and I’m proud to be a part of it.”